Prison people. The investigation will sort it out

In the current law enforcement system, the conscientious do not survive. Lies - to the court, to citizens, to ourselves - the law

Continuation. Beginnings in The New Times # 27 , 29 , 35 , 38 , 42 for 2011 and # 1–2 , 9 , 17 , 23–24 , 29 , 43-44 for 2012

When I read articles, letters, blogs, I am often surprised by the sincere confidence of adults in the integrity of law enforcement officers and judges. What they report in their statements and interviews is perceived as a fairly reliable source of information.

In fact, I admit that many representatives of these professions “in everyday life” are quite decent citizens, and they lie, like all of us, occasionally, out of necessity, experiencing inconvenience from this.

However, at work, being “in the system”, they almost always lie, telling the truth, as a rule, only to inspire confidence, and then lie more successfully. They lie to citizens, to the court, to each other. These are the rules of the “system” that needs to be broken, if only for this reason alone. The conscientious do not survive in it.

In prison, I happened to meet an interesting person. A fraudster who was part of one of the "law enforcement" gangs. At the head of the gang was a prosecutor's colonel, it included dozens of operas, a customs officer and some other ranks, a civil intermediary (my neighbor) and a certain businessman.

“Business” was usual: the customs officer found out who the goods came to the warehouse, the prosecutor (then still the prosecutor) initiated a criminal case, the opera “arrested” the property and gave it to the merchant for a symbolic price, which was then transferred “for damages”.

The owners, for the time being, were rotting in prison, and then they were either released or "rolled up to the fullest", depending on the "understanding" shown.

And so it went, until one "wonderful" day, the group ran into the owners of a higher roof.

The prosecutor left for Armenia; As you know, "a crow does not peck out a crow's eye."

Despite what happened, my neighbor retained a sincere faith in "law enforcement." “The investigation will figure it out” is his comment on any egregious event that we both heard about from cellmates or saw on TV.

At first, it really annoyed everyone. There are no naive people who trust the “investigation” in prison among adults. But then I found a useful use for my neighbor's way of thinking. They show, for example, a luxurious, worth tens of millions of dollars, the mansion of a police general, gilded toilet bowls, heaps of jewelry - I immediately ask:

"Didn't anyone know?" Really didn’t unfasten the authorities? What will the investigation say?

“The investigation will figure it out,” the neighbor began. - The general's children earned money for the house, honestly receiving income in state-owned companies, criminal elements ordered to discredit the general, to whom he pinched their tails, and he is to blame for a maximum misconduct.

The first time I heard this, I thought the neighbor was joking. But he was serious, and a couple of weeks later his version was confirmed by the official press secretary of the "respectable" department.

And so it went: whether they show another powerful bandit, whether we read about the commission of a monstrous event such as a drunken “investigator” hitting a woman with a child, the neighbor reports that “the investigation will sort it out”, and gives out a completely delusional version of events (such as “they themselves rushed under the wheels, and he was fired a long time ago"). And soon this version is confirmed by officials. He never made a mistake.

But everything ends. It's time for him to hear the verdict. None of us were surprised when the opera received suspended sentences, the businessman received ten, and my neighbor received 14 years.

Investigation unraveled...

But it would be inhumane to say so to a neighbor. Silence reigned in the cell...

A couple of days later, the neighbor woke up and sat down to write a cassation complaint, saying:

- Nothing, the investigation will figure it out ...

Soon he was transferred, but, as the prison mail reported, the cassation did not change the verdict.

The next time you hear on TV - “a criminal case has been initiated” and “the investigation has established ...”, before even for a second believing what was said, think about it: is not a colleague of my fraudulent neighbor the author of the readable text?

In any case, I hear his voice clearly in the regular statements of the press secretary of the Investigative Committee.

photo: Vasily Popov/The New Times